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• No chicken little, the sky is not falling!
  Of course, talking about the eminent collapse of the Internet is a great way to make headlines... wish I'd thought of it ;-)
  
  The effectiveness of IP based filtering has been fading for a while in favor of content based approaches. Message Sniffer, Spam Assassin
  rules, SURBL and other URI based systems will be able to take up the slack as IP based blocking lists become more troublesome. I've got
  statistics that show Message Sniffer eliminating better than 98% of spam consistently based entirely on content heuristics. (NO DNS based Blocking lists are used!)
  
  The shift toward content filtering will put more pressure on email systems since it requires a bit more bandwidth than simply rejecting a connection based on an IP. However, not so much that the Internet will fail as a result.
  
  This is going to mean that ISPs will have to become more responsive to complaints, more vigilant about the content traversing their systems, and more open to collaborative systems that identify and shut down problematic sources in real time.
  
  Effective technical solutions to these problems can be built and implemented... perhaps up to now it simply hasn't been worth the effort since, up to now, spam has been a reasonably manageable problem with the tools that already exist.
  
  Be honest,... we're all still using email, and I know lots of people who are quite happy with their spam filtering solution at present.
  
  It has been said before, and it is true --- Email is "The Killer App" and that means there is plenty of reason (read $$$) to keep it from
  "going quietly into that good night..." Email won't die. None of us will let it.
  
  That said, the days of "keeping the lights on and raking in the doe" are over for all ISPs... not just the small attentive ones who still
  know every node in their networks. From now on, even the big boys are going to have to pay close attention to the details -- or else.

  February 3, 2005

  0 replies